NIMBUS Web Monitoring of Corporate Incidents and Allegations

Our web monitoring service,
NIMBUS,
provides a cost-effective way of keeping tabs on
companies all year long. It constantly scans the web for
the latest reports of allegations and incidents relating
to EHS, labour and other ethical aspects of corporate
performance in Asia. We currently track about 4,500
companies. The data are available to investors,
retailers, manufacturers and banks for use as early
warnings of problems and also as inputs to screening and
due diligence.More
- Q&A on Web Monitoring
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NIMBUS
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Managing suppliers to meet an ethical code has
traditionally involved:

initial ethical screening and, sometimes, due
diligence audit

compliance auditing and corrective action
follow-up

training to spread best practice and improve
performance.

This has delivered only a base level of
assurance. But significant supply chain and investment risks
remain because:

audits can not see everything in a snapshot visit

irresponsible factories cheat the audit process

audits are not sufficiently frequent and coverage is too
sparse

the costs of more intensive auditing and training
are prohibitive

little is known about current, ongoing performance

non-compliances are rarely reported voluntarily by
factories

but NGOs and media can discover and publicise bad
supplier behaviour

brands and retailers are less informed and badly
prepared to respond.

Industrial performance in emerging economies remains
environmentally, socially and ethically poor. Audits have their
place but ultimately are of limited value for providing
assurance and stimulating performance improvements.

Invariably, little effort is made to actually monitor ongoing
performance of suppliers or investees, in particular poor
performance, non-compliance and controversial allegations and
incidents.

How can you keep tabs on hundreds, or even thousands of
your suppliers of investees? An audit every 1-2 years provides
bare minimum assurance to your senior management, shareholders,
customers or other stakeholders that all is well. Too often, the
first notification of a problem comes from an NGO or via the
news media, leaving little time to prepare a convincing
response.

Earlier warning can provide valuable time to re-assure
stakeholders that you have the situation in hand. The internet is the main vehicle by which allegations,
accidents and other incidents are communicated across the world.
So we believe the web can and should be used by responsible
companies to use 3rd parties as their extended eyes and ears.

We
use a customised web-tracking and risk assessment process,
coupled with on-the-ground research, to monitor corporate
incidents and allegations relating to about 4,500 companies. This 'ethical radar' allows us to send regular
'risk alerts' to you, enabling you to investigate and take
appropriate action at an earlier stage than otherwise might be
possible.

By accessing InvestAssure's web monitoring database and receiving
early warning alerts, a traditional management and assurance cycle
is informed with real world data and opinion from 3rd parties. This
opens up the assurance cycle - what was a 2-way closed process
becomes a multi-stakeholder, multi-channel exchange of information.

The InvestAssure Web Monitoring Process combines the power of
customised web scanning software with the intelligence and judgement
of our network of local researchers to build a database of 'alerts'
- records of incidents, allegations and commentary relating to
corporate performance. These can be accessed as e-alerts or periodic
monitoring reports relating to the companies of your interest. We
can also undertake customised analyse of the database to inform your
decision making and you can have direct access to the database for
your own purposes in your own time.